Turn the Lights Back On

Album

Single

Label

Columbia Records

Genre

Dance-pop

Composer(s)

Sensations In Sounds And Moods I Love

Entered Chart

Feb 17, 2024

Peak Date

Feb 17, 2024

Released

February 1, 2024

"Turn The Lights Back On" is Billy Joel's first solo song with lyrics in 17 years. The piano ballad, co-written by Joel with Freddy Wexler (Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande), Arthur Bacon and Wayne Hector (Nicki Minaj, One Direction), is a love song that also serves as a self-reflection and an apology to his fans for his long songwriting absence. Wexler also produced the track. Joel's strong, raw voice and warm piano communicate his feelings of nostalgia, regret and hope. He wonders if he has waited too long to turn the lights back on, both in his personal life and in his musical career. It's a heartfelt mea culpa to fans and a glimpse into Joel's own soul. Billy Joel stopped writing songs after finishing his album River Of Dreams in 1993. The only exceptions were two songs released in 2007: "All My Life," which he wrote for his then-wife, Katie Lee, and "Christmas In Fallujah," written by Joel and performed by Cass Dillon. He hasn't entirely been out of the spotlight during that time. The Piano Man has been a mainstay on the performance circuit, with numerous concerts at New York City's Madison Square Garden. So why had it taken him so long to bring out new material? "It was fun. Music is fun. Rock n' roll was fun. It was all about having fun - and I kind of lost that and I turned the lights off because it wasn't fun anymore," he explained to Freddy Wexler on Audacy Check In. "I studiously avoided it because songwriting had become painful. I have this high bar. I said to myself, 'If I don't reach that bar, I beat myself up and I punched myself and I hate myself.' So, I stopped doing it because I got tired of feeling like that." Back in 2022, Freddy Wexler played Joel some tracks he was working on, and Billy's love for creating new music began to return. "The melody, the chords, the chord progression, even the time signature was something that struck me immediately, and that's how I relate to music," Joel said. "This particular lyric in this song, I've had these thoughts, I could have written these lyrics verbatim. I've chewed on these words and I've thought of these words, and I've said these words before. It was all kind of falling into place - and who am I to fight that?" Billy Joel plays the piano and Freddy Wexler bass guitar, percussion, keyboards and synthesizer. The other musicians are: Leroy Clampitt: guitar, bass guitar Randy Cooke: drums Marco Parisi: piano, strings Benjamin Jacobson: violin Tereza Stanislav: violin Luke Maurer: viola Vanessa Freebairn-Smith: cello Billy Joel performed the song for the first time at the Grammy Awards in 2024. He returned to close out the show with "You May Be Right."

Please open the door
Nothing is different, we've been here before
Pacing these halls
Trying to talk over the silence
And pride sticks out its tongue
Laughs at the portrait that we've become
Stuck in a frame, unable to change
I was wrong

I'm late, but I'm here right now
Though I used to be romantic
I forgot somehow
Time can make you blind
But I see you now
As we're laying in the darkness
Did I wait too long
To turn the lights back on?

Here, stuck on a hill
Outsiders inside the home that we built
The cold settles in
It's been a long winter of indifference
And maybe you love me, maybe you don't
Maybe you'll learn to, and maybe you won't
You've had enough, but I won't give up
On you

I'm late, but I'm here right now
And I'm tryin' to find the magic
That we lost somehow
Maybe I was blind
But I see you now
As we're laying in the darkness
Did I wait too long
To turn the lights back on?

I'm late, but I'm here right now
Is there still time for forgiveness?
Won't you tell me how?
I can't read your mind
But I see you now
As we're layin' in the darkness
Did I wait too long
To turn the lights back on?

I'm here right now
Yes, I'm here right now
Looking for forgiveness
I can see as we're laying in the darkness
Yeah, as we're laying in the darkness
Did I wait too long
To turn the lights back on?